Tag Archives: clark poling

On 3 February 1943, the troop carrying USAT Dorchester was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Greenland. It went down with 670 of the 902 people onboard.

The story that keeps the Dorchester alive, however, is the now immortalized Four Chaplains:

As hundreds of panicking sailors scurried in fear for their lives, Rabbi Alexander D. Goode, Father John P. Washington and the Revs. George L. Fox and Clark V. Poling gave up their life jackets and helped calm the soldiers.

“These chaplains were united in their belief that with God all things are possible,” and they served as an enduring witness to “the power of God to transcend chaos and calamity and produce in us the strength to do all things.”

The four chaplains were Protestants George Fox and Clark Poling; Catholic priest John Washington; and a Jewish rabbi, Alexander Goode. The chaplains famously gave up their own life vests and sank with the ship, arm in arm without regard to any person’s particular religious faith.

The US Army Transport Dorchester was sunk 67 years ago on 3 February 1943. It was one of three ships in a convoy taking American troops across the Atlantic, and would become famous not because it was targeted by German submarines, as many ships were; nor did it become famous for the loss of life, as other events eclipsed the dead and wounded.

The USAT Dorchester became famous for the Four Chaplains.

Four Army chaplains were on board, along with nearly 900 other men: Lt. George Fox, a Methodist; Lt. Alexander Goode, a Jewish Rabbi; Lt. John Washington, a Roman Catholic Priest; and Lt. Clark Poling, a Dutch Reformed minister. They became beacons Read more